


Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

by cinder1013



Category: Angel: the Series
Genre: Angel is a really bad at relationships, Established Relationship, M/M, Post ep 2x17, post ep Disharmony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-25
Updated: 2017-01-25
Packaged: 2018-09-19 21:21:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9460841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinder1013/pseuds/cinder1013
Summary: If in "Disharmony" Angel's reply to Wesley's question about torture had been a different one...assuming they had a previous relationship that was put on hold for the Darla craziness.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written many years ago right after the episode aired. Previously archived at the Leather Lust archive.

Wesley paced back and forth in front of the desk. "You understand?"

"Yes," Angel whispered, guilty as a schoolboy.

He smiled and leaned in, some of that easy camaraderie unintentionally invading his manner. "This is torture for you, isn't it?"

Angel fiddled with his fingers for a moment. "Yes."

"Good." Wesley resumed his pacing.

"Not as much fun as when you tie me up though."

Wesley spun around, his look enough to reduce a certain vampire to cinders.

"As when you used to tie me up, I mean," Angel stuttered. "You know when we... And when you... And..."

"I remember."

"Yeah?"

"Much the pity."

Angel slumped in his chair again.

Wesley crossed his arms and took a deep breath before he embarked on this explanation. "You can't just snap your fingers and expect me to come to heel at your side."

"I don't," Angel protested. Wesley cut him off with a glare.

"You do, Angel. You betrayed me, betrayed us all and you just expect us to smile and forgive you. I'm sorry, but it's not that easy. This is the second time your sanity has taken a little turn for the worst." He paused. "Not counting that little actress debacle."

"I won't hurt you ever again."

"Don't make promises you can't keep."

"Flowers?"

Wesley walked out of the office without even replying.

"Wes!" Angel chased after him.

"I can not be bought, Angel!" He stuck his finger in his former lover's chest and stabbed it a few times. There, that made him feel better. "You can bloody well keep your flowers and your chocolates and whatever other schlock your brain is currently thinking up."

Cordelia and Gunn stopped their work/flirting to watch the action.

"Check. Okay, no flowers." He swallowed hard. "But we could still do the punishment right? Would that make you feel better?"

"I am not going to bloody well get you off," Wesley hissed. Turning on his heel, he stalked off rather stiffly. Angel turned to 'Delia and Gunn for help, but the two turned away.

The next day Wesley walked in to find his desk covered in red roses. "Angel!"

The vampire scooted through the doorway, a hopeful smile on his face. "Yeah?"

"I thought I said no flowers."

"Couldn't hurt?"

Wesley picked them up and pelted the vampire with them. "No flowers! No chocolates! Nothing! Get out of my office and stay out!"

Angel slunk away.

"What am I doing wrong?" he asked Cordelia later, while sipping distractedly at his lunch.

"It's not what you're doing, it's what you did," she told him. "You can't just expect Wes to want to pick up where you two left off. I mean, he's a sensitive person. We all are. We need time to heal."

"I just..."

"Want everything to be easy."

"No," he tried to deny.

"It's okay. Everyone, everywhere wants everything to be easy. It's in our nature, both human and vampire, but it's not and it won't be. So, would you please get out of my way before I move you?" She glared until Angel stepped back, then she made a bee-line for the microwave.

"You could always try getting him something he actually likes," Gunn muttered, sliding down in the other empty chair.

"Something... ?"

"Flowers? Angel, my man, Wes is not a flowers kind of guy. He's a darts and beer at the pub kind of guy, a man's man in disguise. Flowers? Did you ever know him?" Shaking his head, Gunn left. 'Delia followed him back out into the main foyer.

The next morning Wesley found a copy of _The Mrin Codex_ , first edition, waiting for him.

"Angel!"

"Yes?" the vampire asked hopefully.

"Thank you."

"You like it?"

"Yes, I like it. Did Cordelia recommend it?"

"Uh, well, no. Why do you ask?"

The human arched one distinctive brow. "Why do you think?"

"I am perfectly capable of picking something out for you myself." He crossed his arms and leaned casually against the door frame. "You know. Because I know you. Because I love you."

"I see. She has good taste." Wesley flipped through the pages, purposefully not looking at his vampire.

"Hey, I picked it out. I thought of a book. Gunn just might have mentioned, you know, to get you something you would like and then 'Delia left the catalog on my desk."

"How intelligent of them. I would have never thought of that."

Angel frowned and shuffled his feet. "I just want to make you happy."

"Then give me the space I'm asking for."

"I want you to love me."

Wesley hefted his priceless book and threw it Angel's head. The vampire ducked and the volume slammed into the wall behind him. "You think I don't love you, you daft creature? You think I can just turn off and on my love like you seem to be able to do? How dare you!"

"I..." His mouth open and shut like a fish, no words coming to his brain.

"Just because everything isn't all right, doesn't mean I don't love you."

"Come again?"

"I love you." Very slowly, Wesley picked his way around the desk, coming to stand electrified inches from his former lover. "I love you so much it hurts."

"Then -"

"And you're going to hurt before I'm satisfied."

Angel swallowed hard.

"I won't be put aside whenever it's convenient for you, Angel. And I can't just be picked up again at your whim. When are you going to get that through your thick skull?"

"But you love me?"

"Yes, yes I love you."

"Then I can wait."

"Good, 'cause I'm bloody well tired of asking you to."

* * *

[One Month Later]

Angel stumbled into the hotel, sweaty and tired from the evening's battle with evil. Even his bones hurt. Blood dripped from a rapidly healing wound on his side and there were bruises all up and down his ribs. He wanted a mug of blood, a hot bath, and twenty-four hours of sleep.

They'd dropped Cordelia and Gunn off at their respective residences, but Wesley had come this far because he'd ridden his bike into work that morning.

Suddenly, as he was halfway up the stairs, Angel realized he could hear Wesley's footsteps behind him. He turned and found the man following, barely pulling his tired body up the steps. For just a moment the vampire had no idea what to do. This was his Wesley, but a Wesley who had barely spoken to him for a month, who had shoved him away both emotionally and physically, who had always retired to his own apartment at the end of the night. Then he reached out a hand. Wesley grasped it firmly and drew closer, stepping inside his vampire's personal space.

Angel opened his mouth, but one of Wesley's fingers on his lips warned him not to speak. Instead the human led his vampire the rest of the way up the stairs.

It was like Wesley could read his mind. By the time he had some food heated up for both of them, the young man had run a hot bath. They both ate quickly and then sank into it, washing the blood and dirt from one another's bodies. His soapy hands slid smoothly over his human's skin. Nipping playfully at Wesley's neck, he finally coaxed the first sound out of him, a little giggle that turned into a long moan.

A little more nipping and then they stood, staggering over to the bed. Flopping on it, they wrapped themselves around one another.

Even though he was so tired, Angel stayed up long into the night, long after Wesley had dozed off, breathing in the man's scent and nuzzling at him, thanking the Powers that Be that his beautiful Wesley had come back to him.


End file.
